


Dragon

by StolenVampires



Series: Masks [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Death, Internalized Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 07:56:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8437555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StolenVampires/pseuds/StolenVampires
Summary: The Mask of the Fox remains. The Mask of the Dragon shatters.





	

Cold.

When they found him, and eventually they did find him, he was cold. It had crept into his bones, his soul. They'd come back for them. For Him. For McCree. For Jesse.  
Hanzo wanted to forget it all. To let himself give into the cold even as Angela and Lucio worked to revive what no longer was there. He'd been too late. Too slow to stop it. The blossom of red in the air. It looked like a chrysanthemum. Yet as his dragons ripped through Reaper, they did not touch the fox. They knew. You did not touch a corpse.

He fell, spent, Reaper gone, torn asunder with an inhuman scream as the dragon carry whatever remained of his soul from the shell that had once held it. A fallen hero, spared the indignity of serving those he once sought to destroy. History will remember him, good and bad. His name will stain lips with regret and remorse. Gabriel Reyes is nothing more than a body in the snow.

And by his side, lay one Jesse McCree. A man who had a bounty on him larger than any other. A man who had worked to save the world and the world had spit upon him. He will not be remembered. He will be forgotten. He will die in the snow. His final act protecting the life of a man he loved. The life of a man who crushed his heart and spurned his love all because he'd been afraid. That's all he can remember right then. All he wants to think and recall, anything more, and he knows it will be worse.  
Angela is screaming at him, yelling his name as tears run down her face. Jesse isn't laughing or smiling. He is still, his hat on the floor and dark red with blood. Lucio is forced to have Zarya pull Angela away as he relays the call for Athena to record.

Time of death: 2:00, ULAT. Cause of death: Ruptured heart, blood loss. Shotgun blast direct to chest cavity.

Hanzo feels hot tears run down his face. Fate has a way of reminding him how he will never be allowed to forget. To be forgiven for what he's done. Too late. Angela is wailing as she crumples to the floor. Lena is screaming and cursing in the cockpit and over the com, Winston's voice gives as he relays orders.  
"Bring him home."

The days following are somber. Ana is the one who ran into the ship as they landed, demanding to see him. They had him put into the med lock. The scent of blood too much and to keep away decomposition. Frozen in time. She looked at him through the glass and began to weep, calling him her boy; Fareeha followed, calling out to him as she griped her mother as the pair begin to cry openly.  
They are lead away by a gentle voiced Zenyatta.  
It's Genji who came to pull away Hanzo from the passenger bay. Genji who guided him back to his room. Genji who let him sob in silence.

Jesse is up for medals, awards, special honors. Angela and Ana are his voice, his champions. They demand records and evidence of Jesse's many crimes. They out their involvement in Mongolia. They do not care. The demand justice for a man who would have been left forgotten. A man who gave his life to a cause and died protecting a man he loved. A man who had done nothing to deserve his love. A week and truths surface. Trumped charges. False, baseless accusations. A bounty made over personal involvements. Jesse is given military honors. A full international pardon.

His name will be on a headstone. A spot in Arlington. People want the story. His story. But the death is too fresh, everyone declines. The UN will have them answer for violating Petras.  
The UN is a world away as they lay his casket into the wet earth. It is empty save for his hat. Jesse had plans, a will, but they want him remembered. The grave will give people a place to go. A place to name a hero who fell protecting the world. A story that is half truth.

Hanzo knows that in the reality of their world there are no heroes. Just men who fall as they save the ones they love.  
The ceremony outside of Sante Fe is small. It is composed of the team. No family- Jesse had long outlived his relatives. His family had been Overwatch. Brother to Angela and Fareeha. Son to Ana. Ana who stands and reads a beautiful eulogy for a man she first met spiting curses in Spanish over his capture. A man who chased an ideal of Justice. A man who loved with more than his heart, but his entire soul. Hanzo feels his own sink lower and lower with each word. He has not broken in public. His sorrow is his alone. His shame and guilt his to bare.  
Jesse's ashes are scattered at high noon.  
This was not how Hanzo wanted to taste the heat of the Santa Fe sun.

He pretends he does not see the skull of a fox on the roadside as they make their way back to the transport. 

One year later, and he revisits that spot. He is alone. Incense lit, he whispers Jesse's name and he is answered in seering heat on his face. Reds, oranges, yellows, browns and gold. The serape around his shoulders feels heavy but he leaves it on. The rough wool itches at bare skin. Smoke rises to the air as the scent of tobacco joins the smell of mint. The incense is one Jesse would have liked.  
Hanzo leaves behind a pack of Jesse's favorite cigarillos. 

All of Jesse's will has been finalized over a year and a half later. The man had been richer than any had known. Dozens of bank accounts. Dozens of names and identities. His personal affects carefully to be given to specific people. His money is to be sent home. To save the women and children who have been harmed by deadlock. His words hang in the letters.  
'Save the kids. They deserve a better life than the one I had.'

Hanzo is allowed to keep the serape.

It is only after Winston has closed the reading of the will that Fareeha approaches him. She says nothing, Peacekeeper in her hand as she wraps arms around him. Hanzo feels walls around him crumbling. She says she's sorry. She should have noticed sooner. Reached out sooner. But she knows now. If he needs her, she will be there.  
He whispers thank you.

A week passes.  
Fareeha and he drink whiskey under the moonlight. They fire Peacekeeper at the stars.

It has been four years since the day. He revisits the place they scattered the ashes. It's changed. In the far distance he can hear a hyper train. Fareeha is with him. As is Genji. They bring a bottle of whiskey and sit together, Hanzo listens to them swap stories. They laugh together, and Hanzo smiles for the first time in a long time. He has told no one. They keep his secret. They celebrate and tell Jesse why- Deadlock is offically behind bars and disbanded. All the leaders are behind bars or dead. The gang is too small to operate anymore. They can't run deals anymore. His dream is reality. Justice has been delivered.

Fareeha proudly tells him she was the one who shot the leader- the man who all those years ago had recruited Jesse and sworn revenge. The one who'd placed the bounty on his head.  
They fire Peackeeper at the moonlight. It rings out as clear as a bell, and the howl of coyotes echo.

The fox skull is missing Hanzo notes as they get in the rental car. He thinks nothing of it.

Years pass in war slowly. Yet he is Hanzo Shimada, a creature, a dragon of habit. He makes his way to the spot each time without fail. A risk he knows, but he does so. At the base faces have changed. Ana passes in her sleep, peaceful. A lifetime of service, she is honored across the globe. Jack died in battle, and as 76 is allowed to die a quite death. He is mourned a second time.  
It is easier to know he is at peace. They saved so many and he smiled as he bled out from wounds Angela could not mend.  
'I was a solider. This is my way.'

11 years to the day, Hanzo tells Jesse the news. Angela is retiring. So is Fareeha. They're together now. They stay to train and teach. Talon is smaller- Winston has passed away of old age and complications. Genji and him talk of it too. Retirement. But he's not done. He cannot be done. He is not redeemed. From Genji perhaps, but not for his mistake. His hesitation. 11 years and he has not called his dragons. He is ashamed.

Hanzo asks why he loved him so. What he had done to earn his love. There is no answer.  
That time he sees a fox on the side of the road, red fur glittering in the sunlight. It's ears flick back and forth before it smiles, vanishing back into the desert.

 

Old man he is called by the recruits. They tease him about his bow and he shows them just why he is still to be feared. He smiles warmly at them and knows each one by name. Softly he corrects their shooting. Every so often they ask about him. The man with the dead eye. The man who was as bright as the Sante Fe sun and as loud as his revolver. Peacekeeper sits silent above the shooting range. Hanzo asnwers their questions with a soft smile. He tells them of a man who fought for everyone but himself. A man who saved his life even though he had done nothing to earn it. Eventually the story of Jesse's last moments come easy. The recruits hear it and stare at him in silence. Some in knowing, others in understanding. Sometimes, feelings do not need words. 

 

He feels a tug in his chest as he climbs to the spot. Peacekeeper is in his hand. Stolen from it's place, he know it will have upset Fareeha but he expects it will be recovered soon enough.  
As he reaches that place, the sun bears down on him hot and bright. It is beautiful, this place, his home that was never his home. His origins. The land of cowboys and wild justice. A place of fire and heat. Sitting down, Hanzo lifts the revolver to the sky, lets it fill him as red consumes his vision.  
Blue light crackles under his skin. Thunder echos in his ears with thunder. 

The gunshot rings over the empty space as twin dragons, electric blue curl around him. They have been waiting. Warm, they help him sit down, his heart beat slowing as he knows what will come. As Hanzo waits, he sees the fox. Red and gold. It slowly walks over and looks up at him with a smile. It stays as he leans back to a rock. The fox's fur is warm under his hands. Soft and welcoming of his touch.

"I'm sorry you had to wait so long Jesse." He whispers as his dragon lay next to him.  
"I am ready now."

Far away, seated as his table in the monetary, Genji looks out the window. He takes off his visor, his vision long worn from electric lights. Yet he can see it as clear as day.  
Twin blue dragons dance in the sky, a fox playfully darting between them.  
Redemption that had taken a lifetime.

Two souls were finally allowed their peace.


End file.
